proclamation
of war against the votaries of all creeds other than that of Islam." No
statement could be farther from truth than this of his. The ninth Sura,
or, more correctly, the beginning or opening verses of it, contain the
Prophet's proclamation of war against those of the Meccan idolaters,
who, in violation of the treaty of Hodeibia, had attacked the
Moslems.--(Sura IX, 4, 8, 10, 12 & 13, _vide_ pages 23-25.) They were
allowed four months' time (IX, 2, 5) to make terms. They submitted, and
Mecca was taken by compromise, in consequence of which the threatened
war was never waged. Those who had not broken their treaties were
especially mentioned, with whom the proclamation or the period allowed
for peace had no connection.--(_Vide_ Sura IX, 4, 7, quoted above, pages
23-24.) Thus it is quite clear that the proclamation of war was only
against the violators and aggressors, and not against the votaries of
all creeds other than that of Islam. I have further discussed the ninth
Sura in para. 40 of this work. The other verses of this Sura refer to
the expedition of Tabuk, which was purely defensive in its nature as has
been described in para. 33 of this book. (See also para. 42.)

[Sidenote: 123. The Reverend Wherry quoted.]

The Reverend E.M. Wherry, M.A., in his note on Sale's Preliminary
Discourse, says:--

"Though Muhammad undoubtedly took Moses as his pattern, and supposed
himself following in his footsteps when he gave the command to fight
against the infidels, yet there is no comparison between them whatever
so far as warring against infidels is concerned. The Israelites were
commanded to slay the Canaanites as divinely ordained instruments of
_destruction_; but Muhammad inaugurated war as a means of proselytism.
The Israelite was not permitted to proselytize from among the
Canaanites, (Exod. XXIII. 27-33), but Muslims are required to
proselytize by sword-power."[315]

Mohammad never had said that he did follow the footsteps of Moses in
giving the command of fighting in self-defence, and in repelling force
by force. There could be no comparison whatsoever between the wars of
Moses, which were merely wars of conquest, aggression, extermination,
and expatriation, and those of Mohammad waged only in self-defence.
Mohammad did not inaugurate his career by prosecuting war as a means of
proselytism, and never did proselytized any one by the sheer strength of
the sword. Mr. T.H. Horne, M.A., writes regarding the extir